Photograph courtesy Joe Subirana, WhalePower
WhalePower's product is "the first time, other than in whales and some fossilized fish, that this has been done," said WhalePower Vice President of Operations Stephen Dewar. "Everyone knew" that a blade's leading edge should be smooth to facilitate air flow, but the humpback whale proved everyone wrong.
"I did nature documentaries at one point in my career," Dewar added. "And I asked, 'What are the bumps on humpback whales for?' [The response was] 'Oh, they're just barnacles.' They weren't."
Currently, the technology is appearing in industrial fans for warehouses, where WhalePower fans move 25 percent more air than conventional fans while using 20 percent less energy, but WhalePower hopes to retrofit wind turbines with these bumps to increase energy output by 20 percent and reduce the noise associated with large turbines.
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